1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to test arrangements and, particularly, to test arrangements for semiconductor devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Probe pads disposed on a semiconductor wafer provide the interface between a device under test (DUT) and an external tester. The probe pads are required to be large to interface to the tester, and can be 500 times the size of the DUT. In development, where hundreds of test macros can be assembled onto a single chip, the area of the probe pads can exceed 50% of the wafer area. Thus, the number of semiconductor devices which can be tested is limited by the space requirements of the probe pads.
For various known test arrangements, see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,060,899, issued May 9, 2000, SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE WITH TEST CIRCUIT, by Hamada, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,898,700, METHOD FOR TESTING A SEMICONDUCTOR WAFER, issued Apr. 27, 1999, which are both incorporated in their entireties herein by reference.
The present inventors believe that drawbacks in the art can be overcome.